Nicole and Bruce Kosch had it all: a love that had blossomed since their high school days in Port Charlotte, good educations, great jobs, an adventure that took them to Wisconsin for a year and a warm, comfortable home in Morriston.

Carolyn Ten Broeck

Nicole Christine Kosch wrote and illustrated Heaven Sent, a children’s book that explains adoption that focuses on God’s role in the adoption process.

The time was right to add to their number and so they began preparations to welcome a third into their fold.

But after a year of unsuccessful attempts to conceive, the couple sought medical advice and testing.

Bruce was up first, because male testing is less invasive.

Nicole, a beautiful woman with a dazzling smile and effervescent personality, said when the call came, Bruce was ecstatic–he was fine.

And then reality set in–the problem most likely set with her.

The news was devastating to the young couple, but Nicole was undaunted.

A staunch believer in her faith, she knew that God had a plan. All she had to do was try and discern what it was.

After several attempts at various treatments, including massage, Nicole, a nurse, learned that a burst appendix when she was 13 had created lots of scar tissue and most likely had rendered her infertile.

Her options then became limited and one thing she knew, in vitro fertilization was not for her.

But something was. She covertly began researching adoptions.

“I felt like God was guiding me,” she said. “I know it sounds funny, but I just knew.”

Bruce was somewhat reluctant, she said, concerned about loving a child they did not contribute their DNA to. But in the end, she was convinced and so was he.

After a lot of combing the internet, she was led to an agency in Pinnellas Park.

The agency puts its applicants through a strict process that includes CPR classes, financial background information and the prospective parents’ physical health. They even had to take a parenting class.

The couple was told up front that the typical wait for a newborn was two to three years.

“But I just had this gut feeling,” Nicole said.

And sure enough, nine months later they were to become parents.

Nicole and Bruce had assembled a book about their lives, their home, themselves–generalities but not specifics.

The book then went to the agency and birth mothers would sort through all the prospective parents until she found who she wanted to adopt her baby.

The semi-closed adoption also allowed the couple to meet with the birth mother, who had chosen them from all other couples.

The meeting was awkward, Nicole admits, and throughout lunch she kept telling herself, “She might be mine. She might be mine.”

She also asked the birth mother why they were chosen.

“She said she just had a feeling,” Nicole said.

The feeling was the onset of the couple’s road to parenthood and when the time came, Nicole was in the delivery room and was the one who cut baby Reagan’s umbilical cord.

The bond was instant, both for Nicole and Bruce. At last the family was complete.

Or was it?

With one child in tow, the couple decided to proceed with adopting another child. Again, her faith and deep feelings that God was leading the way, paved the ground for the couple to adopt yet another newborn–a son, Graeson.

As the family grew and the bonds strengthened, Nicole and Bruce decided to be honest and upfront with their children on how the family came to be.

“I went to the Dunnellon library,” Nicole said, “and asked for all the books they had on adoption. They had six–and one was about adopting a dog.

“None said what I wanted to say–that God created our family,” she said.

So she took matters into her own hand and sat down and wrote the words that she wanted her children to know.

“I’ve always enjoyed painting,” she said, and so the illustrations came naturally–first drawing babies and letting Raegan picking her favorites, then assembling them into a booklet that she read nightly to her children.

“I had so much family support,” she said, “and that support led to me deciding to self publish the book.”

Nicole said she is not interested in making money, she just wants to get the word out that adopted children and their families are special.

“The adoption of my children was an answer to years of prayers. My children will always know that God brought us together through the blessing of adoption. I wanted other families to have the opportunity to share that miracle as well.”

The family is settled now in their Morriston home where they are enjoying every minute of every day. The book, Heaven Sent, is available in Dunnellon at Grumble’s House and Born Again Country or contact www.rgkproductions.com.